Facebook is the social media program that BEGAN the wave of social media. This is the original social media. It is a website/app that allows users to keep in touch with each other. Originally, it started as a website that had every person from a college campus on it, and then it slowly evolved into the social media tool we know it as today. It is pretty easy to navigate Facebook. Users have the ability to update their statues, post pictures, invite "friends" to events, sell items, and so much more. While there are a lot of features of Facebook, it is pretty easy to use as everything is right there on the home page, as well as the news feed where you can see what your friends are up to. Facebook is not a hard website/app to use. If there is something you do not know, you can either ask someone else (there are very few people NOT on Facebook) or you can Google and someone will answer the question. We have both been users of Facebook for years (Rachel since it was THE
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Diigo
Diigo is another bookmarking website, however what makes it unique is that users can highlight parts of the websites/documents and can attach sticky notes with little blurbs of things they want to remember about that section. It works almost like the user has a real book and sticky notes in front of them. The main aspect of Diigo is easy to master, that being the bookmarking aspect. It is really easy to simply hit the bookmark button and paste a url in. I will say it was harder to figure out how to master the highlighting and sticky notes, but upon Googling and with some help from their help section, it is easy to figure out. Another great feature of Diigo is the buttons it has for each of the web browsers, so users can quickly save a website while they are on it. Plus users can download the app and use it on the go. When we first were assigned to use Diigo, we thought, "Oh great, another bookmarking tool to use," but after using it we realize it has more to it than j
Pinterest is one of those websites that we have found you either love or hate. We personally LOVE Pinterest. It is a great website that allows you to save all your bookmarks in one area while being able to network with others. Pinterest is great for sharing ideas, whether they be for professional things (lesson plans, business ideas) or personal things (party ideas, recipes, home decor, etc.). It is a relatively easy website to navigate and work, and pinning things is even easier with buttons for all of the different browsers (Safari, Chrome, IE, Firefox). One of the greatest things about Pinterest is that it can increase your social media footprint, and it can be confusing on how to do that, but upon Googling we found several "How to make your Pins do well" articles that guide someone new in how to grow their presence on Pinterest and social media. Both of us have worked with Pinterest (it took me, Rachel, a bit longer to join in the craze when it started 5 years ago,
Blogger, you win!
When it came to selecting a tool for the PLN assignment, we looked at a few different options. In the past, both of us had worked with Symbaloo and Pearltrees for past PLNs. While they were good, we just felt they would not be able to give all the same options as Blogger does. Blogger is great because it is free (with a Google account), and the way it allows us to format the blog, lends itself to a cleaner, simpler PLN. We felt Blogger would allow us to create a more welcoming PLN that was nicely organized. We also liked how it aligned with our true north values. Blogger constantly takes the ambition to make itself better (example: it just released new themes that mobile friendly), and it is compassionate because it takes every user into account. We look forward to using Blogger for our PLN and showing everyone its capabilities.